In the Realm of Possibilities
by aikotters
Summary: Sequel to The Love We Share. There is always a possibility for a miracle, if you search for it. In seeking out Akiho and Rina's homeworld, Taiga finds the last bits of their past adventure and the last of his own family. And so, he and Sayo must work together to hold onto what they have before all of it disappears forever. Warnings inside.
1. Chapter 1

_Warnings: Unknown dad, implied child abuse, polyamory, past teen pregnancy_

* * *

Chapter One - More Than Others

Sometimes, Taiga dreams of a girl with red hair. Not bubblegum pink and just as unpredictable, but something like cherries and smelling of them too. Her laughter always a little sharp and forced, her purple eyes full of something like admiration and love mixed together when looking at the person next to him, and the sheer unfiltered interest when directed at him.

He dreams of her being so small and unbreakable until he presses his hand on her shoulder and feels like a too painful glass touch on her clothed shoulders.

He remembers all sorts of things in his dreams, and often forgets most of them in the morning.

Or what passes as morning in the strange bubble pulling them slowly through the dimensional cosmos.

Akiho and Rina, curled up with the children, don't pay it much heed. "We saw all we needed to the first time," Akiho tells him, and presses the children closer. None of them seem interested in moving either. Lark seems downright _lethargic, _and even when he's sick he's usually kind of energetic, so seeing him only be awake to eat and use the restroom wherever it's happening…

"They'll be fine, Taiga," Yakov assures him, and the deep, gravelly voice always has. It's always made him feel welcome and safe and pleasantly comfortable in a way that only his mom has ever managed. "The digital world and those related to it tends to take the most out of children. They bounce back better some of the time."

At his side, Sayo winces.

"I said some of the time," he says in gentle self admonishment.

Taiga brushes the top of Sayo's small hand with the pads of his fingers. She smiles, tremulously, and shuts her eyes once more. She has to be able to concentrate. According to Rina, because she has the best memories of their home, so she's the best suited to get them there.

But she is still a child and her power is sealed away and the space between universes is vaster than the hope in many hearts. So the journey is terribly slow. They can easily get lost, or stranded, or far away from their goal into another world entirely with no hope whatsoever.

Taiga, however, thinks she can do it. Mirei had crossed time and space and death itself to make it to them before and then again. Going home should be no more difficult than falling asleep. It would just take time to remember the way.

The bubble around them wobbles a little and then slows to a stop Taiga glances down at Sayo, who is sagging in her seat. "Close," she says wearily. "Not now… not today. Need… Need a door now."

Rina hops to her feet at those words, a smirk of mischief clear on her face despite how heavy her eyelids look. "Finally, I get to do something."

"You've been doing things the whole time, Rina," Niko mutters from where he toys with the V-Pet app. Apparently despite being in the middle of the universe, he still has cell service.

"You're enjoying everything she does," Yuuya says without remorse, not even opening his eyes. Like the kids, it's a miracle to find Yuuya _awake_ in general. The children when not on Akiho, have been using the smaller man as a bony pillow.

Akiho just says it's the cat in him, and every time she does, a pillow smacks into her face. How pillows exist in what only seems to have a bubble in shape is something everyone scientific had tried and failed to explain to him, so he gives up.

All he knows is that the bubble is like a dimensional space ship and can form what they need so long as there is something to provide it energy, like the children and even the adults themselves. It would grow faster if the kids were energetic and running about. But they aren't used to the drain the way Rina and Akiho seem to be.

"It's how things work at home," Akiho would say and then go silent, fidgeting with the single silver ring on her finger every time.

Rina, being Rina and not good at divulging information without force or bribery, says nothing at all.

There is a soft, sudden ripple in the bubble and the few of them dozing jolt awake, looking around as if space will suddenly become less dark.

Sayo's eyes are open and she's looking straight ahead. She breathes softly out, and raises a hand like she's grasping for a doorknob in the dark. "There," she says, with more certainty than Taiga has heard from her ever in the past six months and however long they've been here. "It's there." She pauses once more. "Get ready."

"Ready for what?" Niko asks.

Taiga, ten seconds later, really wishes he hadn't asked.

The ship is suddenly so in motion Taiga can't waste energy standing up. It's all he can do to curl around Sayo, at least in what he thinks is a protective manner, even as she stands like nothing is happening at all. It then lurches to the side and Taiga has to give up on that too. He settles for shakily moving his way over to Lark. His eldest son's tiny fingers curl around his arm, almost protectively.

"'m sorry, papa," he mumbles.

Taiga almost laughs. He knows not to but he can't help but think he's given the kid his own worrywart personality. "Not your fault this is a bumpy ride."

Lark manages to shake his head and it's impressive due to the sheer _pressure _of the moving ship. "No. I took your attention away. He'll be sad."

_He dreams of pink hair that's almost red._

"I'll be fine," Taiga tells him.

For once, it's not very reassuring.

* * *

Some time later, Akiho wakes them up with a choking sound, a muffled sob. Taiga looks up and sees through the multicolored swirls of space, something floating. At first it looks like a bubble, one that dwarfs their own like the sky dwarfs a person. She's staring at it, watching the blurry shapes solidify into buildings and a strange fizzling sky and water that seems to appear and disappear before their eyes.

Akiho lets out another broken, awful sob. It's different from when she led him home with the baby, different from the girl who spoke plainly about the inhumanity she'd been reduced to doing to _not die_, different from the happy joy of holding Madoka or dragging Vladi out of a cabinet or racing out of every class known to man because she can.

Though she's crying, ugly tears splashing little stains into the floor, she's smiling, her eyes are alight. Rina reaches over and squeezes her hand. Akiho winces, then laughs. And the tears spread over the floor and she laughs harder.

Niko and Yuuya twitch in unison but Rina stares at them so hard Taiga half expects to find lasers coming out her eyes. Thankfully, none do, but it's close. He wonders if she could get that function somehow. Rina's eyes bore into him and he looks away with a burning face.

"I know what you're thinking and no I can't." But she's grinning at him despite the dryness of her voice and so he knows he's safe for another day. "And no they thought about it but we decided not to see if we could."

"Sounds like a challenge," Niko mutters, rolling his eyes at the both of them.

Akiho lets out a choking laugh again as their transportation finally begins to slow and as it does, the their bubble begins to turn opaque. Ivory white 'walls', if you can call them that, slide over like automatic doors and the view of space that for the first stretch of time had terrified the living shit out of Taiga for some reason fade away, leaving only the city in view. Well, the city the size of _Brazil_ at minimum and one other bubble, followed by a much bigger almost perfect sphere. And a moon, of course. And if he squints, something else blurs in and out of sight and goodness, that's not a headache inducer, no.

Earth is the same no matter what universe you go in, Taiga figures.

"What's that other bubble?" He directs his question to Yakov, who shakes his head.

"Sanctuary," Sayo replies, the word bursting out as if she'd been waiting to be asked. Not that it made anything any clearer. "Binary knows me there. It's easier than diving right in. We might punch a permanent hole in their structure and that could end badly."

"The nanomachines in the air could probably fix it but we shouldn't take any chances," Rina says as if she'd just described the weather. Taiga will grill her later. He swears it. Her voice is a bit shaky as is and he doesn't need them both crying it will set him off and that's a bad first impression on other earthlings. Or something. He has no idea.

So he… doesn't reply to it. "So how do we get in the Sanctuary then?"

"Father Time should let us into Sanctuary," Sayo replies, still steady and almost a little reproachful, like he should know these things. But all he gets are vague dreams he doesn't remember too hot in the morning. And he'd rather not know if her knowing makes her so terrified of sounds and seeing people bigger than her. "He knows me. He'll let us in."

Her legs wobble as she speaks, but Sayo raises her hand anyway and waves it to the left. The float down, which is infinitely less gross and numbing as when it had been like, not too long ago. Their stuff isn't tumbling around anymore anyway.

When they'd left, it'd been with things, locked away in their bags that Rina had somehow designed to be like hammerspace or something and they'd not opened the whole time but Taiga is not looking forward to seeing the state of it all when they get out and have to unpack somewhere… at some point.

They continue to float, and then pause. The wall goes blank ivory like the rest, all but for a single blue screen floating at the 'edge'.

Sayo wobbles again, but stumbles forward a step, and then another, and then like there is no end she runs and _leaps _forward at the screen. It doesn't shatter like it ought, but the wall ripples like water as she disappears through it.

Taiga makes to get up and race after her but Yakov lets out a noise to wait. And they're left alone in there in the silent white. Their hearts make so much noise, because no one else dares to speak. Then the bubble lurches forward, and continues to move. A sensation like skin stretching on a broken bone, but not painful, passes over them until something pops in their ears. Taiga looks around and their white bubble slides into shades of soft grays, lights on the walls, a ceiling that slopes up like hills. Green light passes under his feet as he picks himself and Lark up from the floor.

"Welcome," says a soft, familiar, painful voice from a man that dwarfs all but Professor Yakov and Taiga's own mother. The voice is rich and warm and kind and the speaker's red-violet eyes look down on them with curiosity. He's dressed only in a great red robe and long possible slacks, dark skin clear through the tied golden string. Not too surprisingly, Sayo is sitting on one of his arms and he seems to have no trouble carrying her. Taiga's pretty sure even Yuuya wouldn't struggle to carry Sayo, in his defense. Her fingers are in one part of the fabric but it seems more for balance than anything. She doesn't react in the slightest to them. Her breathing is slow.

"My name is Rekushin," he says to them, and Taiga feels his heart swell with something familiar and heartbreaking. Granted he doesn't know what it is but it makes his eyes water. "God of time and progress. My wife and daughter and I reigned over the digital world together once upon a time, but I am afraid it is only me now." His fingers brush against Sayo's cheek, and the girl sighs in her sleep, utterly peaceful even through the bruises. "Well, myself and a guest and her family. And this one now."

"You're not her father." Akiho's voice cracks like a whip. "I've _met_ her father."

"I was," the man says in that gentle tone that brooks no argument. "Not anymore, of course, but she was pleased to see me either way. Now come, you must be exhausted after your long journey. We will get you fed and rested." He turns slowly and begins to walk away

Yuuya twitches but takes Akiho's hand in his. The hair starting to poke up red falls flat slowly and Rina pushes past them with a sleeping Vladi.

"Rina, slow down," Niko complains, trying to smooth down his stuck bedhead.

"I want a shower," she tells him with a huff. "And these little ones need baths."

"She wants to keep up with the new ass," Akiho mutters.

Taiga chokes and glances at the children. The oldest ones don't even react. Even Lark, who loves asking not-so-innocent questions now just trots on in slow, exhausted steps. Taiga pauses, makes sure everyone is accounted for. Yakov is grinning weakly with pride and pats him on the shoulder as he passes. There's something else there, something sad and longing and other that he can't identify.

Mama meets his eyes and nods, gently, ever gently, and takes his hand.

"Come now, she says. "Let's freshen up."

It should be embarrassing to be tugged to do the smart thing by your mother, but he's tired and confused and now his stomach is starting to hurt. So he goes.

* * *

Hours later, Taiga wakes on a bed softer than any futon he's ever seen in life. He's pretty sure even Yuuya, the richest person he'd ever known (his family owned the internet and he still left, hardcore) had never slept on things that comfortable.

He'd dreamed of the redhead again, dreamed of her confusion, her sadness, her exhaustion, her acceptance. Her mouth pressing clumsily against his cheek. Arms steadily wrapped around someone else's neck.

Taiga gropes around in the dark of the room for a clock and makes a face. "What time is it?"

"17:39 GMT."

"Thank- what the hell?"

Taiga looks around and nobody is there. Nothing is there. But there's a little cackling bark, a sound dogs never make.

After weeks and weeks of traveling, he's finally losing it and hearing things. Great.

The cackling bark comes again, and in the dark, that's enough to make a shudder run down his spine.

Taiga gets dressed as quickly as he can and bolts out of the room. In his defense, he'd barely managed to be escorted to said room before running and flopping. His children had been ushered into their own, where Sayo had been placed. Their favorite place, especially Lark's, has always been curling up beside her like a bunch of multicolored kittens. So wherever that is, that's where they'll be.

"Hey barky voice," Taiga begins. There's a croon soft against his ears. "Which way to my kids?"

There's a chirp in response of all things, and the little lights embedded onto the walls on his left turn a soft green, while the others remain white. He blinks, shrugs, and goes.

"Thanks!"

He'd arguably like to find the others first, but Lark has always been his top priority, has been for years. That can't change now, no matter what.

He keeps walking, and as he prepares to make a turn, a child exits one of the doors.

Taiga stops and looks at them. Soft golden brown skin, barely Lark's height, dressed in something covered in so many ribbons and frills the kid looks like a Little Red Riding Hood. Only their hair is red. A familiar shade of red, tied up with a ribbon.

Hazel eyes blink up at him. Taiga notices, somewhat absentmindedly, that they too are flecked with red. Taiga smiles, and makes it his usual friendly good to meet you there being kids here means his son could finally make some friends. He's only had half-siblings and other kids in the group and Sayo so long. The socialization would do him good. "Hi there," he says, and a part of him winces at the way the child seems to shrink into themselves a little. What is it? His bedhead? His being a little lanky? Did he stop too fast or speak too loudly? He's not sure. "My name's Taiga. What's yours?" Best to plug ahead anyway.

The child shrinks a little more, fingers curling into the fabric of their dress.

_Shy, _Taiga thinks and puts his question to the side. "Your dress is cute on you," he decides to say.

The child looks at him with something, something like longing, like hope. "The elves made it for me," they say, shyly scuffing a foot. "For my birthday. I'm five."

"Five's a good age," Taiga tells them with sincerity. "That's the year I pelted my mom with mashed yams."

The child giggles and it's so tiny and hesitant and all Taiga can wonder is who _hurt them_?

Still, maybe he can help. He starts to take a few steps, and slowly the child follows. The spirit croons. "That was also the year I decided I could fly and jumped off the monkey bars onto the slide. It hurt, but it worked."

Another hesitant giggle. It's a little louder, and Taiga has hope he'll get a full blown laugh before he gets where he's going.

But before he can find another funny story, someone else turns the corner and the child goes stiff. "Robin," says the other person and their voice is full of relief. "You're all dressed. Good! I thought you wanted me to do your hair."

The child stops, blushes shyly and looks away. "I forgot."

The person laughs. "Don't grow up so fast, Robbie, you're too cute." And for some reason, Taiga finds himself unable to look at the person even as "Robin" scurries over to them. He just keeps seeing-

Red. His fingers running through red hair, wet skin warmed by the bath, two girls laughing and full of something fond, nervous squeaks and soft wings so fine they could have broken if he twitched his hand wrong.

Pink eyes, harsher than Akiho's, weighed down with centuries of something he'd never asked about.

A simple, wavy spread of layers of clothing, that had been annoying that night in shelter. An oversized hat that almost covered her ears.

"Rhythm," Taiga croaks because suddenly the girl in his dreams is not that girl. She's very real.

The woman looks at him, up at him and sighs. So tired. "Taiga," she says, and the little child shrinks into her arms like she'll protect him. From him. "This is your son, Robin."

"Hi," Robin whispers, meek and small and hurting.

Well, now Taiga has his answer and it really, really freaking hurts. He had hurt this kid, unintentionally, and he'd hurt this woman, intentionally.

What does he do with this?

* * *

_**A/N:** _Hey, hey. This is a birthday present. That's why it's up. Fight me. 40 chapters of me telling canon to take a hike. This is a part of cyber sleuth, mind, but like: I am not gonna cover as much of CS as I usually do, mainly because this is here for drama. enjoy the drama Onix, you giant teddy bear made of cotton candy. Have fun everyone!


	2. Chapter 2

_ Warnings: Discussion of death, trauma, identity crisis, child abuse, anxiety, non-human characters, life support, adultery. No one is okay. No one._

* * *

Chapter Two - The People From Behind

As kids, Taiga had dreamed of a full family a few times. Loud noise, lots of people, easy going laughter and friends enough to fill an apartment complex. No one is bored, no one is lonely, and when they're hurting, they rely on each other. He'd talk about it with Niko sometimes, especially when they were little and the world was boring behind closed doors and Niko made himself come over for warm food and a parent who stayed home and loved him without anything in the wall. They'd talked about families with both parents and children and friends and people who loved and were loved.

This… this isn't at all what he imagined.

"I don't suppose Mii-kun is with you," Rhythm continues in that dull voice like she hadn't shattered his entire life in the span of two sentences. Like she doesn't care that he's hurting, and honestly she probably doesn't. From what little his brain is

Taiga works his mouth open and closed, desperate for words. "I… I… she…"

"Right here, Rii."

He shouldn't feel relieved but somehow Taiga is relieved to see Sayo walking up to them, Lark's hand squeezing hers so tight her fingers seemed to be losing circulation.

At the sight of him, his son, his firstborn, his brain is short-circuiting, rockets over to greet his legs with enthusiasm. But then he stops right in front, and looks at Robin.

And now that Taiga sees it, he can't not see it. He can't not see the shape of their faces, the tint of skin he'd never understood Lark having because he's so pale himself, the way little Robin's lips twist in a frown that Taiga finds himself tracing on his own face with a finger.

Rhythm draws a sharp breath after a second of looking at Sayo. "No, you're not. That means you-"

"Died, yes." There's something dry in Sayo's voice, none of the timidity or flinching or anything. Just a flat, dull stare and dull eyes. No. Taiga squints, looks again. It's not dull exactly. It's braced. Tense, expectant. Her body is deliberately loose, but ready to curl up, as if, somehow, she can lessen the blow and cover Lark at the same time despite the distance. "It was me or him," she says, still looking her right in the eyes. "You'd have done the same thing."

Taiga watches Lark's fingers pinch tighter into a fist.

Rhythm remains stiff, looking at her with wide eyes. Robin is curled against her side, watching the older girl with intense, heavy eyes. "Why?"

Sayo meets her gaze, and smiles sadly. "I was so tired, Rii. I'm still tired. But I promised myself I'd bring Taiga here, and now I have."

"Why?" Taiga looks at her now, praying for answers. Praying for something good.

Sayo smiles flatly, and it doesn't even pretend to be sincere. "I couldn't let Rii be lonely. Because I'm not going to be lonely. And Robin is lonely in this big house with elves more than people."

Rhythm pulls back as if wounded and gets a smile for her look. "That's not fair," she says.

She gets that tired look that Taiga recognizes from that first month, the one that slept in fits and bursts and pretended her hands weren't shaking.

"When did you ever think that life was fair, Rii?" She starts to tremble, shaking in a way Mirei never had, never could have. "Was it before or after you and yours _wouldn't let me die?_ Life's not fair! Life has never been fair. We just have to make it good. You have to. Not me! I've done my part. I'm tired of picking up yours!"

Taiga wishes he could stuff those cruel, angry, painful words back into Sayo's mouth, but there's a hard set to her face, a determined, grim line of guilt and stubbornness that isn't familiar but feels like it should be.

As it is, Rhythm just looks sick to her stomach.

Little Robin's eyes are welling up with tears. "Don't yell at mom!" he says with surprising firmness for a little boy who couldn't even laugh.

Sayo regards him. "You're right," she agrees. "I shouldn't yell at her. But no one else is going to, so I did. I'm sorry you had to see it." She loosens her body slowly and gestures him on. Lark obediently goes to Taiga, who scoops him up with a bit of a struggle. He's getting heavy now. "You're a good kid, Robin. You get to choose what you want with Taiga. Just like your mama can. But she can't choose for you and you can't choose if all the pieces aren't there. It's not…" She looks Robin in the eyes, and Taiga is alarmed to realize that he reaches, much like Lark, close to her breastbone. She's so damn small. "It's not what should be.

"Mii," Rhythm starts, but Sayo turns away, shoulders back.

"Mikagura Mirei is dead," Sayo says in that empty voice. "Talk to me when you _know my name._" And she strides away, down the other hallway and out of sight.

They're left staring at each other with wide eyes.

Taiga finds his voice again. "She doesn't like when I call her that, either, if it helps. Her name is Sayo."

Rhythm's face seems to pale further. "Course it is."

"What?"

"Nothing." She closes off. "Such a meddling idiot. I was happy here, without you."

"I wasn't," Robin says, softly. "I wanted someone here."

That stings, and judging by the look on Rhythm's open book face, it stung her more.

Lark, however, wiggles free of him and drops. "Hi!" he says, a cheerful smile on his face. "I'm a Larkie."

"Lark," Taiga corrects without thinking.

"Robin," the other boy blurts.

Lark beams at him, and it seems a little weird. Then, as if he was waiting. "Your shoes are ugly."

The other boy's eyes fill with tears, but that's all he gives away before he decks Lark right in the gut.

When he tells the others later, it's absolutely hilarious, but at the time as he and Rhythm are separating their children, it's rather like the icing on top of the shitfire sundae.

* * *

Rina doesn't need lungs, but she's still thankfully lost for breath.

"Now this," she says out loud. "Is what I call a lab."

All around her are, not beakers and test tubes exactly. There are neatly stacked files, a few carefully organized projects, half completed mechanical marvels of some sort, something rather blob like, and the scientist himself crouched over something infinitesimally tiny. Much tinier than him anyway. It's almost funny.

"You should be sleeping," he says by way of greeting. "The journey wore you all out."

Rina shrugs. "I'm a fast healer." _And technically not human. _"I need to do something. The others are… feelsy. Akiho is…"

Akiho is scared of home. Akiho is scared of going back and seeing the graves of all the children who died because she wasn't there to protect them.

Of course, she won't say that out loud, but she's known Akiho since before either of them could smile at each other. She knows the closest thing to her other half better than anyone else.

"She needs touchiness," she says after a while. "I'm not very good at that."

Rina is good at faking it, sometimes feeling it. She's a robot she's not an abomination. But she doesn't feel like that. It seems stronger than it is, but really it's always at a simmer, coaxed along in small, short bubbles. It all bubbles and boils over and by the time it's out it's too much. And she's a mess then because it's a peak that takes a while to come down from.

"It is good to know your weaknesses," the god tells her. "And to accept them. I did not, and it caused my loved ones and I a great deal of pain."

"Did you make it up to them?" she asks, moving over to see. It's a tiny device, maybe a little digivice. She can't be sure. She's not quite close enough.

He smiles at her, and it's a lips only thing with warmth in his grey eyes that helps. "I try every day, if only to appease my guilty conscience."

"Sounds right." She settles on a clean stool to watch. "What are you working on?"

He glances at her, not with surprise. She doesn't know what can surprise him, and she's not great at reading closed books anyway. But interest maybe? "It is meant to be a portable life support device," he finally says. "It is for my wife, for when…" He exhales wearily. "When she is saved, I suppose. She was Eaten, a few millennia ago, and I was-" He waves a hand. "Indisposed in the process."

"I didn't know gods could die," she muses, picking at her fake nails. They're always short and translucent, but it works for covering her bases. "Though I suppose Mirei…" She stops, and looks at him, somewhere between apologetic and pensive.

"It is quite difficult," Rekushin informs her, putting down his tools and somehow looking unconcerned. "But I am sufficiently recovered from the experience, now, much as my daughter could do before her passing."

"Why did she die?"

It's been a question on her mind for some time, not because of Sayo because that was a different can of worms for Taiga to deal with, but because, logistically, she'd been able to make portals and build things and drag people from one world to another. And she'd let Lark live and died herself. She could have gone home and birthed him and brought him back or simply gone and there'd have been nothing anyone could have done to stop her. It'd have hurt of course, but they were resilient, mostly. They'd have recovered.

"She did not."

"Pardon?"

Rekushin straightens up and regards her. "Just as I said. She did not die. Because she was never alive in the first place. All she did was use up the time we had made for her, the energy she had gathered over thousands of years to be solid. To be physical. To be loved. And then she gave up the rest, and let go. She was, I imagine, quite tired." He sighs. "It should have been the end, but I… but I could not allow it to be."

Rina opens her mouth to ask what in the hell that means, but the door slides open behind them.

And there is Sayo, eyes haggard, hat drooping, hangdog look on her face.

Rekushin smiles at her, fondly. "Ready to go home, I see."

Sayo nods, raises her hands, lowers them to dangle uselessly at her sides.

"You do not have to explain," he tells her. "You love them, and you miss them. And you want to see them. Now we can see each other as much as we like, and you will not fall ill. So do not trouble yourself. The fact that I can hold you again is enough for now. Come, let me show you the way."

Sayo's nose wrinkles, and Rina finds herself saying, "I don't think this is making up for the mistakes you made."

"Perhaps not," he agrees. "But loving people can make mistakes even when you know better."

She watches them go for a second, then trails after with the quietest footsteps she can muster. She wants to see how they'll go home too, but they do deserve their space.

"Went too far, did you?" Rekushin is saying softly, amusement at the edges.

"We all did, really," Sayo replies, voice empty. "I'm not… I'm not her, anymore. You understand, right? I can't go back, what I did was… it was supposed to be permanent, no matter what I remember."

"I know, darling. And you know I love you no matter who you are, yes?"

"... I think I know that."

"This life is different," he allows. He doesn't touch her, Rina is immensely grateful for. This means he understands, he sees, he knows how important this is and what she couldn't tell Taiga because he has a tendency to be nosy (They all do but Taiga actually doesn't think about it the little idiot.) and he has to learn from the sting of the slap rather than the words from a mouth. "You… she hurt you."

"She was trying to help me." Sayo sounds tired. "She saw something awful and she figured it out and I- the old me told her things would be okay, I lied to her why did I _lie to her_?"

"There is a chance as you are, Sayo," he tells her. "There is always a chance. There is only one of you here, she, the past won't return. There is nothing tearing you in two, here."

Sayo stiffens up. "It feels like there is."

"That is the problem with facing your greatest regrets, my darling," Rekushin tells her. "It always feels as if you will be torn in two. And for the other problem, I am working on it. You must focus on the things you returned here to do. Your friends, your loved ones, they need you now. You have brought the things you left behind to where they need to be to thrive. Now you must thrive for yourself. You cannot meddle a second life away."

"I could try," she mumbles. And he laughs, gently.

"You certainly could, and I would be a hypocrite to stop you. But you do not want to."

"... I couldn't save them. I couldn't save anyone, I couldn't help I couldn't stop it, I couldn't stop _any of it, I-_"

Sayo is starting to babble, but she's still walking, mechanically like her body and brain have forgotten what teamwork is and it's only then that Rekushin stop and leans her into his side. "It is not your fault, darling, you know that. You did everything you could with everything you had. This is not your fault. It could never be you were a child."

"_He's dead, he's dead because I couldn't leave well enough alone and now Rii hates him when it's my fault and that boy is hurting and it's my fault."_

Rina pauses, the nickname filtering through her database like a bad itch. Within seconds (google has nothing on her), she pulls up a face. Soft and round, red hair and pink eyes, a frown on her face. Not human, in fact, rather-

-draconic-

Attached herself to Mirei like a leech, and soon to Taiga. Got injured before fighting the Demon Lords, they'd escorted her home before looking for one of them. So what does that matter?

… Rekushin had mentioned a child.

_Shit._

Rina turns on her heels and sprints away. She hears her body vaguely creak, but takes no notice, the nanomachines already beginning their quick auto repair work as she moved.

"Hey, talkie house."

The building grumbles.

"Where's my shorts wearing idiot?"

The house tells her and she hurries. She has to pick up his pieces, she's sure but she's also pretty sure the other woman won't do it.

* * *

Once she is gone, Rekushin throws manners to the wind and scoops Sayo up in his arms. She heaves a breath and it comes out too fast and she chokes but like he practiced, just like Meg told him, had warned him, like he'd seen, he runs his hand up and down her back.

Much to his horror, there is not much space for him to do so.

But it helps, a little. She shudders and heaves and sobs against him and it's like the time they'd made the mistake of letting her grandmother near her alone.

Maybe she's not genocidal in this world but the old Yggdrasil has never been kind and now she's much too far gone to be worth being near.

And he regrets.

"It's all right, darling, it's all right." And she's not sobbing anymore, just breathing hard and muttering and how had they missed this part of her for so many years?

"I didn't want you to see," Sayo mumbles into his shoulder and Rekushin wishes he hadn't said that out loud because the rest of the thought has to come out with it.

"I wish you had, sweetheart. I wish you had."

"I do too," she says when the choking gets easier to brush off. "But I can't."

"You can for them, of course."

She trembles at the thought, and Rekushin steels himself to carry her the rest of the way. Not that he minds, he would carry her a thousand times to make up for a thousand years, but her little legs shouldn't give out, her heart shouldn't be so tormented.

He wants to be angry with the mother, but it does not do him any good to be angry with her. She was stopped in time. She had stopped in time. But he can still be disappointed. He can still be so angry.

So he carries her to the exit point, hears her breathing slow and the grip on him loosen. "Sorry…" she finally says. "I'm so tired but… 'm sorry."

"Do not be sorry for feeling, Sayo," he says to her and he means it still. "You are hurting. You must let your hurts clot over, rather than brush them off to open again."

She nods.

He sets her down and she tests the strength in her legs as he leads her to little round spot. The little portal. "Here it is," he tells her. "There is a small waypoint, already. I believe you will have to decide where you wish to end up. I could not rest myself there long enough to make a definite access."

Sayo swallows but she nods. She steps onto it and holds herself there. She looks about ready to close her eyes. "Can I…"

"Yes darling?"

She pouts. "You didn't even let me ask."

The small warmth in her voice makes him laugh. "You know I can never quite say no to you."

She almost smiles, almost. "Can I still… I want... " She wavers, but he watches her scarred hands curl into determined fists. "I can't be her anymore, but… can you and her still be my parents?"

His eyes water, but he does not cry. "Of course, my darling. Whatever you want us to be. Once I get her out. Once we get him out. Of course."

Sayo smiles at him, directly, like a blooming flower. Then she shuts her eyes and disappears in a flash of light and particles.

No fanfare. No one else comes to check. The spirit slides the door shut at his back, and allows Rekushin to sink down to his knees and weep.

"You did well," intones the only other occupant of the room. "Very brave, for an utter fool as you are."

"She needed me," he says, voice hoarse. "I cannot need her yet. She needs… time."

"That she does," agrees the squat thing as she approaches him. Meg waggles a fingerless hand at him. "She loves you, you old fool. Don't you waste it like this now. We still have work to do and a mistress to save."

He rubs his eyes. "That we do," Rekushin agrees. "That we do. In a little while."

"I suppose I can allow you this much."


	3. Chapter 3

_Warnings: Trauma, harm to minors, past violence, discussion of codependence, Digimon partner culture, also memory issues_

* * *

**Chapter Three - The Lost City**

Sayo opened her eyes and breathed in the familiar, tangy air of DigitalCITY. Thick with data particles and smelling of salt and sorrow.

And the dead, can't forget the dead.

On her left was the digital ocean, the gap between her world and typically the digital world, but for the sake of stability it would occasionally slip to the human one. Either way, falling from the deep end would kill you before the landing. That was the hope anyway. It certainly worked on digimon. The shallow parts were mostly fine though, and children often learned to swim in it. It was why many kids could survive an Adult level's first attack or two.

On her right, the Solar District loomed, obvious by the soft orange lights on shop walls and painted on the streets. People paid her no mind, there were portals everywhere after all. For all they knew, she had just taken a teleportation pad for easier access to the sports stores and college bookstores. Her lips twitched to a smile. Izumi Koushiro would roll in his chair to see both of his lifelong works displayed so casually here.

For a moment, her heart leaped with hope. It was still early, maybe Hikari wasn't here yet. Maybe she could see her and… and with this body it would be a happier ending. There was no reason for her to fall apart, no way she needed to, so… so maybe…

Sayo swallowed the breath that had been threatening to explode out of her. She was getting ahead of herself. She was getting so, so far ahead of herself. Her friends, her chorus, her everything came first. She was only a kid still anyhow. There was plenty of time to worry about those things, but if she didn't help Yuugo and the others, if she didn't save them, then they'd be broken. She couldn't let that happen. She _wouldn't_. Not this time.

But first she had to go home and see them. She had no idea which world this was. Which time. They all tended to blur together after a while. Some of them, her mother was on trial right now, some she was dead. Some, dad was in the hospital he'd helped create. Some, Nii-nii was here. Which was one was this? Which one would it be?

There had been a risk, of course, that when she'd worked to find her way back to her universe that she would end up in the wrong one. The only proof that she hadn't was that everyone else was the same, the people she'd left behind were the same, so it stood to reason that she'd ended up in the time just before her mother had really snapped, had actually hurt her. Not that Akiho and Rina would understand. It was easy to think that Mama Yuma was one of those kinds of people who beat and hurt their kids. And she wasn't. The problem was that she _wasn't_ that way.

There was no way of knowing until she went to see for herself. So she squared her small, shaking shoulders and started walking.

People finally looked and noticed her and most were politely baffled because every day was every day but she had her father's face shape, his soft eyes, his loving big heart (that's what they said, she didn't believe it but that was what they _said _ and they said they loved her so she had to believe them and that was so god damn hard) and everyone who had a kid or was a kid here had likely met her father. Others knew her father and they were looking at her and heat blossomed up her face with the chill of fear in her stomach.

Sayo did not have the fearlessness of most children, or the careless immortality of Mirei before the world had torn and burned her down. So she chose to duck her head and run and let that be all right. She didn't know who these people were anyway, she could live with the consequences of confusing and disgusting them.

Granted she was probably going to get lost but that was better than being looked at at the moment.

At least until she smacked into someone hard enough to send her still healing body sprawling back. That or they were like her, and not entirely human, so she'd have to check for a bruise later. "S-Sorry-!"

Receiving no answer, Sayo tentatively opened her eyes and stared up into the face of her mother, clutching a rather meager bag of groceries for a dragon woman, let alone a family of three. She stared, mouth agape. Then tears filled her eyes.

"Mum…" she breathed and threw herself up into the woman's chest.

The small bag hit the ground, forgotten, and she was squeezed back, tight and hard and with tears sinking into her clothes. "Mum," she sobbed with relief. "Mum."

She felt realization wash over the small crowd. She felt noses turn up, sneers settle onto faces, judgement, judgement just like they were no matter where they were from.

Sayo took a deep breath and stopped herself from shrinking into her shoes. "Mum… I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

"You have nothing to be sorry for," the woman said, her voice thick and tears splashing into her hair. "_Nothing_ at all."

And this, Sayo believed. This gave her the courage to open her eyes and glare at one of the sneering people. This _was _her mom.

"Don't be rude!" she said in her best scolding voice. "We're happy! Go be unhappy somewhere else."

Her mother laughed, so wet and soft and something in Sayo melted with joy. "I think we are in the minority, darling. Come. Let's go home. Everyone has been in a right state."

Sayo did not disobey. Relief was good, relief was right.

* * *

In some worlds, her mother was driven mad, faced with the knowledge that her daughter's body would break down after the loss of her son, she did not search over long nights and heavy tomes and digital explorations like her husband, but turned outward, driving her daughter into a corner of self-control and self-centered loathing, desperation and love and hope fueling her every step.

In others, she reached out to her family, just as desperate, just as scared, and they found a stopgap.

Others, no one knew, and her daughter died with a bang or a whimper.

In others, she was a son and he simply faded away, all because of the unfortunate reality: A soul could only exist as one self at one time.

Worlds where Mirei was gone, and Sayo remained, they were quite rare and they were difficult to put back together. Kyle would know those. She wanted to ask him.

She wasn't sure if that would be allowed, or what state he would be in. Maybe they'd be the same age this time. Maybe he was the same as before, and broken because of her. She was too young to know him anyway. And besides, what if he'd just fought GAIA? Or the war? Or lost his friends? He'd pretend to be okay for her sake. It would only make things worse.

So no, she wouldn't ask. Not yet. Not until she could see the Digital World safely again. Not until she had her friends back.

Her fingers squeezed her mother's hand and her mother squeezed it back.

One thing was certain in these worlds, her mother was kind and tired, and sad and scared, but she was not driven to madness or grief, or held down by her resentment of her strong brother who had always gotten everything, while she'd had to struggle with the scraps.

Mama stopped and Sayo's heart almost stopped with her, looking at the high steady rise of the apartment complex they shared with so many people, many of whom she knew even vaguely in her discombobulated head.

An annoyed voice let out a grunt a short distance to their right. "Mochi, what is wrong with you? Don't pull… why are you so damn tough for such a tiny- Mochi no!" There was a sound like leather against fingers, a slapping thud and Sayo froze, her grip on her mother's hand going stiff and not moving.

Then a boy with blue hair came tearing down the street, clinging hard to the thinnest leather leash imaginable as a dog roughly the size of a child's baby doll raced down the sidewalk, big as a baby doll and three times as energetic. The two of them came skidding to a halt and nearly fell on their faces.

Mum didn't let go of her hand, but the looseness of her hand makes Sayo think that she would if she could. If, reasonably, Sayo could think much at all through the shock. "Are you all right, Dougal?"

The boy rubs his head and grumbles. "Yeah, I'm fine. No thanks to you…"

The words cut and like a splash of water, Sayo can hear again. "Nii-chan…?"

He freezes now before his head snaps up so high it cracks. "Sayo…"

He drops the leash, runs for her and-

Sayo dodges.

She doesn't mean to, and he really does faceplant this time. Bile's running up her throat and guilt and pain fills her gut. He didn't know. He couldn't have known. She runs to him, crying her apologies and his eyes are-

Stormy. Stormy grey, the coldness of grandpapa in photos, his anger, plain and clear.

But then his expression cools, eases, and he squeezes her tight. And the panic recedes, as if it fears him, him and her parents and her sister and all of them. As if they will be the castle to protect her from her roiling thoughts

"Where'd she lock you up?" he mumbles, eyes leaking. A small set of paws sits on her foot and Yuma leans over them, shaking a little and Sayo doesn't know why.

Sayo swallows. "She didn't. And you know it. It was…"

She doesn't want to say it, doesn't want to put the truth to words because they're in the open, they could get in trouble, but it needs to be said anyway.

"It was Mister Kurata."

* * *

Kurata Akihiro has always been a coward.

He's known this since youth. He's known this as sure as he's known that he's a bully magnet and that he loved science, even the darkest parts of it. He's known it since before that day in the digital world.

He's known it since Rhythm left him in exchange for his life.

A digivice has never appeared for him, or if one has, he's never seen it. It's possible Rhythm's kept it from him, wanting him to have a peaceful happy life.

It never worked, but he's appreciated it, as much as he can appreciate the monsters.

And yes, they are monsters. This is what Suguru never likes to hear from him. He refuses to acknowledge that that is what they are and that can't be changed no matter how many humans canoodle with them, no matter how many half-children come about. Digimon are digimon and humans are humans, and those in between are those in between. No matter how much you blur a line it is still a line.

To him, if it was a choice between the loss of one life and the loss of one million, he would, without hesitation, choose to lose one. Even if it was his own, but somehow, things never come to that.

He is a coward, and he knows it. He doesn't hide from it, he doesn't pretend it's not true. He just reminds the world that it is reasonable. That it is okay to feel fear. That it is natural to want to get rid of the things you fear.

That it's his actions that are deplorable.

It's hard for the world to accept but then, most people on the planet never have to make truly hard choices.

Still, the choice had been throwing Tsukino Sayo into the digital sea, or letting DigitalCITY plummet into the nearest ocean.

He thinks he has chosen well. Rhythm would not be proud of him, but then she had chosen him before, so she had no right to complain.

But then his old mentor slams his door open and drags him by the arm to a monitoring room, with the little girl he had meant to kill, on camera. Small and scared and cracking, but alive.

And Kurata hears one of his coworkers, a grey, dismal sort of man, start to cackle.

Kurata _doubts._

* * *

Taiga and Rhythm get their children apart and Lark is in tears and scuffed up and Taiga has no sympathy. Robin is bruised but pouting, unrepentant as only children can be. His dress and ribbons are dirty, which seems to bother him more than his bruised lip.

Taiga has seen violent children. Lark, when not coughing out his lungs, is terribly rambunctious and Madoka is able to keep up with him in the worst of ways (Taiga blames Yuuya for this, all of Akiho's violence is purely premeditated), and kids in a sandbox are just as terrible to deal with as kids on an American blacktop on tv.

But he has never quite seen _feral_ children fight, with teeth and claws and things.

Rhythm, however, seems mostly disappointed. "What'll Darja say huh sweetie? Hearing you got into a fight?" She was straightening his clothes, unlike Taiga who had commandeered the first aid kit. Then she paused. "Never mind she'd be immensely proud of you but still. That's a bad thing you did."

"Darja?" Lark echoes. His eyes are wide in curiosity but Robin flicks his head around quick as a whip.

"Get your own," he barks, actually barks like a puppy. "She's mine! You made yours wait and _I'm not sharing her!_"

Lark actually starts crying all over again and Robin catches himself and shrinks into a ball. Rhythm sighs and pats his head. Taiga, at a loss, picks up Lark to start rocking him.

"I wasn't gonna take her," Lark burbles miserably.

"You already took my _dad_," Robin mumbles with remainders of ferocity. "You'd take Darja if you could."

"Wouldn't," Lark replies in a whine. "People aren't things."

"People are people but partners are partners," Robin says, shoulders starting to slump in exhaustion. "You don't know so you don't know."

Taiga looks over the children's heads at Rhythm again, who sighs again and gives up on her scolding for the moment.

"Robin and I are Digimon."

"But I'm human," Taiga retorts at once.

She smiles at him, and it's mischief and moxie and it makes his face burn. "Sure you are." Rhythm shrugs. "But anyway, some digimon have partners and some don't. We do. I want to punch mine until his intestines fly out of his mouth and Robin loves his partner so much it hurts. Even if I didn't have some lingering affection for my partner, I would still be selfish with him." She rests her chin on her palms. "I would still be possessive, because he is mine to care for and help and harm. Robin's young and Darja is young, so he feels extra impulse to keep her safe. Lark over there also has a partner."

"But then…" Taiga turns his head around a little. "Why would Robin care?"

"Humans and Digimon can often be compatible with multiple Digimon and multiple humans." Rhythm makes a face. "One human, more than one Digimon. One Digimon, more than one human. It happens in the CITY Mii- Sayo-chan - went to. Often. Most people there don't live long enough to find their destined one so they make do. So to digimon born for humans, to be shared or brought over to someone else, to have to abandon or be abandoned by a partner…" She sighs. "It's like being eaten from the inside out."

Taiga watches her face, her eyes shutter and dull, the irises grow cold and unwelcome, almost worse than the accusing stare she'd given him earlier. "I don't want my son to feel that. I don't think yours will do it on purpose but I can tell." She looks at Lark, who has been reduced to irritable sniffles and pouting. "He's searching for someone. And he must be very lonely so he will reach out to whoever can answer. And partnered or not, Robin can answer."

"'M sorry," Robin mumbles.

Taiga glances at Lark, who glowers at him in a taste of youth rebellion before bowing his head to Robin and Rhythm both. "I won't do it, I promise."

At this, and maybe it's just because Rhythm is weak to small children in a way Sayo was, she softens up. "I believe you. We both do, right Robin?"

Robin nods, tremulously. Lark huffs but doesn't do anything else, thank goodness. Taiga's legs are starting to cramp.

He makes to stand, and suddenly he wants his friends, his family. He wants them to help him make sense of the world he'd run into. Lark burrows against him. And Rhythm rises, fully prepared to go in the opposite direction of them. Robin, for the tiniest instant, looks crestfallen. But his eyes meet Taiga's and he prepares to close off. Taiga can tell from the slant of his cheeks.

And, probably much like the day they'd made Robin in the first place, Taiga's instincts take over his brain. He says, "Robin's my son too."

"Unfortunately," Rhythm says without much inflection. Robin flinches with something like shame and is not soothed by the strokes in his hair.

"I'm sorry," Taiga says simply. "I left you behind, without thinking. We left you behind. And you had to deal with so much alone and that wasn't right." He exhales. "But he's still my son, and I want him to be. And I want you to help me with him. He's not just yours anymore, if you'll let me in."

Rhythm bristles and it's not cute like it was when they were teenagers. It's angry, rough and cold. "You-"

"You don't have to," Taiga adds. "But you can't stop us from talking or being here. And… he's beautiful. You've raised a beautiful boy. I just want to help…. Later. For now I need to tell everyone."

And he makes himself smile at Robin one more time and turn away. "Besides, this one needs a nap. He's cranky."

"Am not," Lark grumbles, but he doesn't move.

He's out of sight and hopefully out of hearing before he finally bursts into tears himself and lets Lark pat his cheeks in sympathy.

He doesn't hesitate to lean into the strong grip of the person he hadn't heard come along, but Rina tucks them in under her chin anyway.

"Thanks," he sniffles.

She snorts and shushes him.


	4. Chapter 4

_Tags: Allusions to miscarriage, the fondness of polyamory, digisoul shenanigans, family issues,_

* * *

Chapter Four - The Colorful Possibility

Taiga soon found himself nestled in a blanket, Niko casually pulling knots out of his hair because he was best at it. Yuuya was sleeping and a pouty, sullen Lark had crawled in beside him. Akiho was between them, looking between him and Yuuya like he wasn't sure who to hurry over more. Madoka was on her lap, yawning. Vladi was a baby and therefore also asleep. Thank god. He didn't want them to see him like this.

"So, what happened?" Niko asked, wetting his comb again. "You look like hell froze you over."

Taiga licked his lips, unable to speak for a few moments. Then he said, "Apparently, I knocked Rhythm up and left her in the Digital World."

Lark hissed, which was new. Akiho tweaked his nose without blinking but Niko winced, giving him a look of dismay. How did you scold against that?

"How?" he asked, rather reasonably. "I don't think Digimon are supposed to have the equipment for that."

"You're practically married to a cyborg, Niko," Rina said in a very reasonable tone of voice for someone currently reshaping a ball of steel into a sharp needle the length of Taiga's middle finger with little more than the strength of her hands. "It's plenty possible for Digimon to give birth. They just tend not to. It's very _human_, y'know?"

"Very human," Akiho agreed, rolling her eyes. "Data collects into eggs over time or they match - merge - their data together and make eggs that way. Most Digimon just come from reconfiguration or matching without thinking. It's rare that a digimon has a kid on purpose. They're usually very old and spend a lot of time with humans. Rhythm is both."

"She doesn't look like it," Taiga mumbled.

"Well, Digimon don't see age like humans do." Akiho sighed as she spoke. "The calendar's different, the year shape runs a different speed, she's our age by human standards. Still. We could have gotten a message from her. She was pretty passive. If she's that old, she ought to have had a method to communicate, especially here."

Yuuya stirred and stretched more like a cat than a person (which wasn't new, he'd always done that, but the light made it look a little strange.) before opening his eyes. "What'd I miss," he grumbled.

Taiga flushed and looked away because he was _never prepared _to see that. "I have another kid I didn't know about and his mom hates my guts but the kid's adorable."

"Oh." Yuuya yawned. "Just don't behave like my dad was about me and you'll be fine. Your focus is making it up to him first. She's not going to budge about herself, so you have to wait for her to open up. He might be different." He closed his eyes again.

Taiga finds himself smiling. "... Thanks Yuuya." He frowned. "Are you okay?"

"That ship tired me and I don't… quite know why." He sighed.

"Your Soul must be rather drained still," Rina surmised and Akiho nodded. "You both probably didn't notice because yours is rather weak."

"Our what?"

"DigiSoul," Akiho elaborated. "It's how you evolve your digimon, and other things, but it can be used as fuel. The ship probably relied on the kids and Yuuya more because Yuuya's kept Black at full power for years. We're already recovered because we're used to consistent drain."

"Our Souls are weak?" Niko paused in his hair combing to put a hand over his chest. "That hurts me, you two. Hurts me right here."

Akiho laughed, but Rina was buzzing at the chance to explain. "More like your pool is small," Rina launched into an explanation about Digimon and fighting that Taiga latched onto, if a bit guiltily, onto this thing that Rina is apparently a treasure trove of knowledge of, in order to avoid the whole mess of his life for a little longer.

* * *

It occurred to Taiga later on in what he thought was the evening that he hadn't seen Sayo in hours. And so he asked Rina, who had apparently found most of the rooms without even entering them.

Now that they were in a place where the technology might be alive, they needed to have a talk about her hacking into things unconsciously.

"She went home," Rina answered through a bundle of squirmy disagreement, aka Lark up from a nap. "She's in Digital. We figured it was better to go tomorrow."

"Oh." He wasn't sure why that bothered him exactly, but he did feel a little used. "Without saying goodbye?"

Rina looked at him in that way of hers that had become more and more common since they'd found out she had a USB for a tail. Like he was the one who needed constant upgrades on understanding people. "Well, we'll see her later, so why say goodbye?" She shrugged. "Her family's probably worried too."

She said that in a way that radiated uncertainty, her eyes drawing downward as Lark finally settled in his chair, face pouting grumpily at being woken up so unnecessarily. Or maybe it was just knowing his half-brother was sharing the house with him and Lark only was just getting used to sharing with his other siblings. He must be reaching his tantrum age.

"What, do you think they wouldn't worry?"

Rina hummed, setting Lark's cutlery in front of him and watching him light up at the sight of the comforting plastic hurt because it had been just so cheap. But he'd insisted on bringing it. "If you asked Akiho, she'd say her mother just wanted a beating bag, according to hearsay."

"But?" Taiga prodded, fury burning behind his eyes at the thought. Not Mirei. Not Sayo. She was his friend.

"But I don't think it's like that," Rina said after a while. "It could be like that, but I think, knowing Sayo much as I do, and her family, I don't think Auntie Yuma would do that. She was on our side in the fighting. But it's easier for Akiho to blame Auntie Yuma, I think."

"I don't blame her for things, Rina." Akiho came back into the room with Vladi still sleeping in her arms. "You've seen how she acts with Uncle Shinta."

"And Shinta's a male dragon with trust issues raised in a human society," Rina countered. "Who has had fights with her since he got his sparkly super warrior powers. We've only really got his word."

"He should know his own sister," Akiho said, but there was a look on her face that told Taiga she'd already given in and they both knew it. "And it doesn't explain the bruises."

"I don't think they were given directly," Rina said with a huff. "You know as well as I do that Sayo thinks she can protect her baby sister from the ground just like you did."

"I have done nothing wrong ever in my life." Akiho said this with a perfectly straight face.

Yuuya lifted his head just high enough for them all to see him roll his eyes. Then he dropped back down.

"My sister lost an eye. That's not the same." Akiho rubbed Vladi's head as she opened her eyes.

Rina sighed. "Well Sayo lost two siblings. It's definitely not the same."

They all stared at each other.

Rina blinked. "Did we… not tell them that?"

"No," Akiho deadpanned. "We didn't. Thanks."

"Any other weird shit you want to drop on us before we eat dinner?" Niko deadpanned.

Rina tilted her head. "I'm sure I'll think of something."

"Do it later."

Taiga was already so tired.

* * *

Niko woke to the sound of the bed creaking. "Need help with that," he murmured without opening his eyes.

Akiho let out a giggle snort, which meant she hadn't gone to sleep at all, which was very bad for her. "No. We're not doing that."

"We could have been." Rina's voice sounded particularly put out. "If you all didn't fuss."

"We would not," Akiho scolded. "We have too much to do."

"Yeah, yeah, your sister's fine." Rina is shaking her head. "We're preparing our justifiable explanations for why there are two kiddos to our parents. Three if Larkie's allowed."

Akiho groaned into the pillow, and it almost sounded like a sob. "We've been at this for hours, Rina. They're going to ignore the explanation anyway."

For a moment, in a sleep bound haze, Niko could not remember why that was a bad thing. Then a part of him went cold and remembered Akiho's old explanation that she and Rina were put together so they wouldn't have kids at all and he felt sick.

"Of course he's allowed," he said instead, quietly, so he didn't wake Taiga and Yuuya, the latter of whom could probably sleep through the apocalypse and the former of whom was finally resting properly. He really wondered where Bel and his dad went. Busybodies. "What do you think is going to happen?"

"Mum and Suzu and Dad are going to fucking cry all over me and my cousins and everyone will be overjoyed," Akiho says through the pillow. "So are hers. But everyone else is going to be scared."

Niko grimaced. "You're not gonna start a war."

"No, of course not," Rina agreed in that blasé voice she'd used when admitting she was a marvel of science and resentful of her lack of proper human anatomy. "They're scared that uniting our families means we'll start an authoritarian regime inside their homey little space jail and they're busy thinking they're free or resenting they're not and they can't fight back about it."

Niko grumbled. "The fact that you guys have basically had to think about this since you were kids never fails to make me want to break something."

Rina cackles. "With your noodle arms? You?"

"Oh shove it." He was smiling though because she means well and she's not wrong. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah and it doesn't really work." He swallowed a breath of air. "Anyway, why can't they revolt on the government? You all can handle multiple digimon at a time."

"The digital world is enough of a threat," Akiho said and all of them nodded because yeah, that was true. "There's enough going on there to keep us occupied and our economy going and eventually, it's likely we'll just detach from Earth entirely and land this place down in the digital world somewhere."

"What, is it a spaceship?" That would explain so much.

"It's close," Akiho said. "But some people didn't see it, or us, that way." She rolled over. "I'm just nervous. The kids don't deserve the torment because we decided unprotected sex was a good idea."

Niko stretched a bit and reached over to tousle hair. "Do you want to start a revolution?"

"I used to," Akiho admitted. "But now it feels like a waste. I have a family and the digital world is enough of a problem. And they can't send people up too often anymore. We'll be over crowded and have to go down eventually, which is a gravity nightmare."

Niko winced, remembering three months of everything feeling heavier than it should be. "Oh."

"I mean it's possible to do, it'd just be more time and energy we could use to leave them altogether."

Somehow, it didn't seem as simple as all of that. But what could he say in the face of that much exhaustion?

"We need to sleep," he said instead. "There's another kid running around only one of us has met. We're gonna need the energy."

"We're going to need to take Yuuya to a _doctor_, first of all," Akiho said, petting Yuuya's cheek. "There's Digisoul drain, and then there's _this._ I don't like this."

"It could have to do with his dad, I guess." Niko laid back down, letting Rina reach over and squeeze his hand.

"Or the mom."

"Whoever that is."

Niko did not want to think about that. "Yeah," he agreed. "That."

* * *

Being home was only a reprieve.

Sayo knew that tomorrow would bring hustle and bustle and fear. She wasn't an idiot and she wasn't a pessimist either. Things were complicated and difficult, especially with a still developing mind. And she knew that was her weakness.

It didn't mean she knew how to not be anxious or anything but the first step to solving a problem was admitting she had one right?

No one had come barreling down their door (yet, there was always a _yet_ involved here) so that meant someone would soon and she didn't know what to tell them.

It wasn't like the professor had been wrong to do what he had and that he had pushed mama so much wasn't surprising either. Mama was on frayed strings at the best of times and her own condition was often terrible (would be terrible unless she finds the first her, the Mirei her, which if she's gone in this world after all…

Crap.

She might be. Mirei had died and she wasn't in the lab. Sayo did not remember making the lab.

Had Father done it? Had his sanity returned and had he done it? He'd been… better when they'd arrived, a person, a hugging person, affectionate. But was that out of fear or guilt? Was it from a place of love? It was so hard to tell.

Gods she hoped so.

Sayo for the moment was curled with Mochi the dog and Dougal her brother. The timelines pushed other pictures - her alone, her father's voice and her uncle's pacing behind her door, little Yuki crawling beside her, the house empty. She squeezed her eyes shut and ignored those pictures behind her eyelids, thinking instead of the better things. She was in this life, no others, she was _here_.

Mochi snuffed against her fingers and she sank her hand down into the soft curly fur and stroked. Douglas snuffled himself, fast asleep. He'd always been an easy sleeper. He was bigger than her, which sucked, but she was getting better! It'd have helped if the others were slightly better with ingredients… focus, no focus!

Dougal stirred a little and she tensed a moment, but then he relaxed, squeezing her other hand as he sat up. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"'S okay," she said. And it was. She was his sister. In her shoes she wouldn't have let him go ever, especially if he came back looking how she had. Their family usually recovered a lot faster too… Ugh. Explaining all of this was going to be a nightmare.

Of course because he fell asleep fast, he always woke up fast. He yawned and then blinked at her. "You look better now."

"I hope so," she said before remembering her manners.

He just grinned. "No roof jumping where you were, huh?"

Sayo couldn't help it; she smiled. "It's not as fun without friends." She looked around. "Where's Barry?"

"With Keren."

"She's here?" Sayo struggled a moment. She remembered Keren, but much older, much sadder, much, much different from who Dougal was probably talking about.

Dougal squinted at her in the dark. "Why wouldn't she be?"

Ah… crap. Sayo shrugged her shoulders in lieu of a response. She sat up and Mochi wiggled off the bed. She had to be getting old by now but she still seemed as young as a puppy.

Dougal continued to squint at her. "Koh's not gonna be happy you forgot about him and the others."

"I didn't!" she protested against the sly little smirk, against the press of memories that right the world in her head. Right, Koh's family was a successful transfer, one of the slowly growing many that the entire group survived alive and well. A couple of smart kids who were kept indoors as the city repaired itself, made a reputation, tried to live. Friends with her family because the rumors weren't enough and everyone knew everyone anyway. Right, okay, good.

"Uh-huh."

Sayo crossed her arms, lower lip jutting out into a pout. "I do!" She turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Immediately she squinted at the light for a few seconds, only to be engulfed by another pair of arms and a chest. It was thinner than the others, seemed frailer and paler but steady, so steady.

She was getting so many hugs today.

Not that… there was nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all. She missed the hugs so much.

"Papa," she murmured. She hugged him back.

Someone coughed and Sayo let herself be hefted by those thin arms, those arms that had endured so much and would endure much more. She turned her head and faced -

_A sneering, jeering face, twisted with the weight of failure, worn out from hours alone, and fighting against thoughts that were hers yet not hers._

Naked relief from a tired mother's face. Not her own, Mama was right beside her, but Kamishiro Rie was looking at her with joy and gratitude and loneliness.

"I'm so glad you're all right," she said.

And she knew she meant it, Sayo knew she did, but the sense of purpose clattered into place in her all over again.

Yuugo and the others were not safe. They were not happy. They were not all right. Sure, the others were mostly in this recovering city, but it wasn't the same. It couldn't be.

She had left in the first place because the professor had promised to find a way to help them.

Either he hadn't found one yet, or he had never intended to in the first place.

With Kurata Akihiro, it was always hard to tell.

"What happened, Sayo?" her father said after a moment. Not, are you ready to talk about it, or do you know? But, rather, what happened?

No one looked too much older. That determined that she'd been gone less than a year, at most. That was good, though it sure felt longer.

Sayo considered lying. But she wasn't an idiot. Lying did no one any good.

She took a deep breath and explained.

* * *

It was sunrise.

Time wasn't typical in the Sanctuary but they tried to follow the digital world's cycles for the same of something regular.

Which was why Robin knew if he leaves now, he'd not be missed for a couple of hours.

He reached the DigiLab entrance, skirt swishing. It was simpler now. He was just going for a walk.

Well, no, he was going to find that girl that upset his mother and get some answers.

_You could just ask your father,_ said a tired, cautionary voice in his mind.

And normally, Robin would listen to that part of himself. It was the digimon in him, older, smarter, sadder. But he'd only known the man a day, and that day had not been good. It was better to find the source of everything. She wouldn't be mean about it; he could tell.

And he couldn't ask mama for answers either. She wasn't good at that.

He set the coordinates in and watched the portal machine light up.

He'd gone to that city hundreds of times before. He'd be fine.


End file.
